Magical Memoir Moments

The Quiet, Productive, Connected Very Good Day: Tina Fariss Barbour's Wise Words

By Shirley Showalter | November 19, 2014

Last week I broke one of the basic rules of good writing. I got a little carried away with adjectives, writing about the Amazing, Excellent, Superb, Splendid Very Good Day. I’ll blame my infatuation with my grandchildren. But sometimes breaking the rules leads to new opportunities, as it did today. One of my readers has…

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A Story of Hope for Those Who Struggle with Depression

By Shirley Showalter | April 24, 2010

A few weeks ago Stuart and I were visited by a former student of mine, now a wife and mother who spent many years living in Indonesia, which is her husband’s home. Karin will soon move to Bangladesh, where her husband will be working for Habitat for Humanity, and she hopes to continue online work for her master’s…

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Parker Palmer on Bill Moyers Journal: Ground On Which It's Safe to Stand

By Shirley Showalter | February 23, 2009

If you missed Parker Palmer’s appearance on Bill Moyers Journal last Friday, cheer up.  Here it is. Apparently, the broadcast about illusion and reality in our current economic crisis, which included Parker talking about depression in his own life, cheered many people.  Funny how truth does that–in just the paradoxical way that Parker himself explains…

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Little Heathens–Perfect Memoir for a New Depression?

By Shirley Showalter | November 8, 2008

“Ralph Waldo Emerson could have learned a thing or two about self reliance from my great-great-grandparents,” asserts Mildred Armstrong Kalish near the beginning of her book Little Heathens:  Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm in the Great Depression. I knew I would love this book when I read those lines, and I…

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